Times of Testing

With a house full of teenagers, I knew to expect occasional outbursts and emotional power plays during this trying time of hormonal change and emerging adulthood. Yet there were days that I handled the stress better than others.

I didn't do very well on one particular morning and entered my devotional time frustrated and upset. God quickly let me know that He knew exactly how I felt. He reminded me of the Israelites sojourn in the desert and how they begged him for one thing after another only to moan and complain when He gave them the very things they'd asked for. Their repeated rebellion cost them the right to enter the Promised Land.

God knows what it's like to have sometimes-difficult children. And I found encouragement that day in the knowledge that He doesn't ask me to go where He hasn't already been. While my kids would eventually outgrow that stage in a matter of years, He had to struggle through four long decades of continual attitude adjustment! But the Bible says that He "stood their test". Surely then, with His help, so could I.

" Where your fathers tried [My patience] and tested [My forbearance] and found I stood their test…"
(Hebrews 3:9 AMP)